Go SLOW to GET More

This week in the studio, I shared this quote on the board...

"The faster you go, the less you see."

~ unknown

We can think of this in many different ways in the context of our deep health.

"Vroom-Vroom". Let me put it in a way that I think many will relate to: driving. I don't think there are too many people who would deny that it's become scary to drive the roads today. Why? Because people are rushed (fast) and they are NOT mindful/present (less you see). Whether they are texting (speeding up their mind, not allowing them to be present - not to mention just NOT paying attention to the road) or rushing because they didn't give themselves enough time to get somewhere, this quote rings true. Being winter, one thing I see WAY more of in the past handful of years is the amount of vehicles driving with nothing but their windshield cleared of snow. Why? They're rushing to get somewhere maybe? Rushing to get out and back home? ...

Regardless, they DEFINITELY are SEEING less. 😳

Note: Our own safety, and that of others IS part of our deep health. Just as wearing a seatbelt and driving sober is! This would fall under the social and evironmental health realms (community).

Skipping Ahead. We're good at this in our health efforts. VERY good I would argue. We see a "plan", a "diet" or a way of doing things that was successful for someone else so we dive RIGHT in. FULL TILT. 0-100 (see? The FAST part as mentioned in the quote). When we inevitably STOP doing it, we blame the "plan", "diet" or anything else we can possibly think of. Why? Because we jumped in so fast, we couldn't see what was ACTUALLY happening:

-We didn't have the skills or habits in place to make THAT particular way of doing things

work for us.

-We didn't take the time to recognize what IS and IS NOT working for us

-We didn't even take the time to ask ourselves "Do I WANT this? For ME?"

Leaving "cracks in the foundation" is practiced CONSTANTLY in our modern society, because we all just want to be "THERE". At the goal. At the end point, where we think "everything will be great".

Spoiler: Even "THERE", at your goal, LIFE still happens. Stress will still pop up. There WILL be good days and "not so good" days. But if we keep GOING FAST, we'll NEVER learn how we can manage health and life at the same time, in a way that works for us as individuals.

Our Distracted World Creates "Speed". Our phones, our digital work environment, our literal speed of work has us PRACTICING "Fast" at EVERY turn throughout our daily lives. We miss details from "small" (eg: information we read or signage) to "big" (eg: quality of our work, experiences with other human beings in the same room). It all creates a "fast" life. We wonder where time has gone. It's gone due to how distracted (fast) our mind is moving, never being able to SLOW to SEE what is right there in front of us at any moment.

Mindfulness Practice can Teach us & Help SLOW us Down. When we learn and practice mindfulness (which may/may not include meditation as part of the practice) we LEARN to build those foundations gradually and VERY solid. Mindfulness teaches us things like letting things be as they are right NOW and letting go of expectations. This is ONLY able to be practiced when we are NOT going fast. In that, when we SLOW DOWN we actually get to SEE how we feel, think and act from the inside out.

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I hope you can use this quote/start using this quote, as a mantra that not only is your reality seasonally, but also all year round. SLOWING down is where we LEARN, GROW and create POSITIVE sustainable change; something that RUSHING (going fast) CANNOT give us.